Dance
by RavenTempestShadowhunter
Summary: Nico has had a crush on his best friend Thalia for years. He finally gets the courage to ask her to a dance...as friends. Maybe he'll get the chance to change that. High school AU, Thalico, rated for swearing.


**I don't own Percy Jackson, Boston Brother's Pizzeria, or Pirates of the Caribbean.**

**Dance**

For seven o'clock in the morning, the cafeteria was surprisingly busy. There was a group of freshmen sitting behind Nico, talking and laughing about what they were wearing to the dance that weekend. He hadn't known girls could be so loud until he'd gotten into high school.

Staring at the bagel in front of him, Nico wondered if there was less of a penalty for murder if it was well deserved.

"OMG, you should totally wear the green one!" a girl shrieked directly behind him, and he winced.

On second thought, any penalty was worth it.

"It's too fucking early for this," Thalia moaned, slumping into the seat next to his and dropping her muffin and chocolate milk onto the table.

"You don't have to be here so early, you know," Nico said. He reached over and stole a piece of her muffin. The top was the best part.

His best friend heaved a dramatic sigh. "But if I don't I won't get breakfast."

"Stop at Dunkin' Donuts on the way."

She scrunched up her nose. "Ew. Dunkin' Donuts is disgusting."

Nico rolled his eyes and stole another piece of her muffin. "Starbucks, then."

"The only good pastry Starbucks makes is cake-pops, and you can't eat those for breakfast." Ignoring Nico's spluttering protests (cake pops were good any time of the day, damn it), she looked down at her muffin and realized that he'd taken most of the top. Looking back up, she glared. "Fuck you."

"In your dreams, Sparky."

Thalia opened her mouth to respond, but the girls behind them burst into fits of giggles and interrupted her. She turned around. "Shut the hell up," she snapped, and the four freshmen girls (Nico could have sworn there were more) gathered their Justin Bieber/purple sparkly backpacks and nearly ran from the cafeteria, looking terrified.

Thalia turned back to the table. "God, I'm so fucking sick of this dance, and it hasn't even happened yet." She picked up her milk and started chugging it.

Nico swallowed hard. "Do you have a date?" he asked, hoping she couldn't hear his voice shaking.

She put down the milk, swallowed, and shook her head. "People have asked me, but I didn't say yes." She laughed. "Some girl from my art class even asked. Do I give off a gay vibe?"

Nico shrugged, chuckling. "Maybe just a little."

Thalia smacked his arm and he laughed harder. "So why'd you ask?" she asked when he'd calmed down a bit. "You planning on asking me?"

He swallowed again, trying to stop his stomach from knotting. His bagel suddenly looked incredibly unappetizing. "Yeah. I mean, I was thinking, if you don't have anyone, and I don't have anyone, we could go…as friends?"

She shrugged. ""Yeah, sure. As friends."

Mentally Nico was beating himself up. He'd been planning to ask her as a date, not as friends. He'd been trying to ask her since seventh grade, and now they were in twelfth. He was running out of time.

And he'd just sunk himself further into the friend zone.

But he smiled and said, "I'll pick you up at 6:30."

The bell rang, and Thalia grabbed her backpack and stood up. "See you in Art." She waved and left with the rest of the crowd.

Nico stood up and swung his bag onto his back. He dumped his bagel and milk into the trash.

At least she hadn't laughed at him. Or said no. He wasn't sure which would have been worse. But on the other hand, she might bail on him if she got a better offer.

He resisted the urge to bang his head against a wall as he headed to English class.

* * *

"This is pathetic."

They were sitting on the bleachers in the gym watching people in very short dresses grind against each other to very loud, very bad music.

"I was gonna go with disturbing," Nico said. He was trying not to look at Thalia. She was wearing a black t-shirt and a long black skirt, and Nico thought she was the most beautiful girl there. It helped that the t-shirt was very tight and very low cut.

"God, look at her." Thalia pointed at one of the sophomores. The girl in question was wearing a bright red dress that was strapless and very low, and made it less than halfway down her thigh. Nico was surprised that she could even walk in it. But he wasn't surprised that her boyfriend was having trouble keeping his hands off her. They had given up all pretense of dancing and were now making out in the middle of the dance floor. As Thalia and Nico watched, the girl took her boyfriend's hand off her thigh, put it on her waist, and pulled her skirt down from where he'd been pushing it up.

Nico wrinkled his nose. "Don't they have a better place to do that?"

"A bedroom, maybe?"

Thalia's stomach growled and Nico laughed. She glared at him. "I didn't have dinner, sue me."

Nico laughed harder and stood up. "Come on," he said, holding out his hand.

Thalia eyed him warily, but took the hand and stood up. He led her to the door and out to his car. They both climbed in.

"Where are we going?" Thalia asked as he started the car.

"Dinner."

She grinned. "Aw, look at you, Mr. Gentleman, taking your date to dinner."

Nico laughed and rolled his eyes, but it was forced. "I don't know if Boston Brother's Pizza counts."

Thalia shrugged. "As long as you bring me somewhere better after prom."

Prom? She was planning on going with him to prom? "Are you asking me to go with you?" he asked, glancing at her. Was it just him or was she blushing?

"Is there someone else you'd rather go with?"

Nico cleared his throat. Now or never. "Well, there's one girl I really want to ask. I'm just not sure she'll say yes."

"Is it Rachel?" He shook his head. "Kelly?" Another shake. "Please tell me it isn't Drew."

"God no!"

"Well, then who is it?" Nico took a deep breath, but before he could open his mouth Thalia interrupted him. "No, don't tell me. I'll give it away."

He breathed a sigh. Apparently it was never.

* * *

After pizza (which was amazing, Boston Brother's was their favorite) they agreed on a movie marathon and drove to Nico's house.

Nico got popcorn and junk food and soda, and Thalia picked the third Pirates of the Caribbean. They sat together on the couch under heaps of blankets. As soon as the movie started Thalia stole all three of the Twinkies Nico had found, but he was too comfortable to glare at her.

An hour into the movie, Nico blurted out, "It's you."

Thalia looked at him, confusion written on her face. "What?"

He picked up the remote and paused the movie, wishing he hadn't said anything. "The girl I want to ask to prom. It's you."

Thalia didn't say anything for a moment. Then, "You like me."

Nico nodded, staring at his hands, and Thalia didn't say anything.

Shit, he'd ruined it. They'd been friends since second grade, best friends since third, and now he'd ruined it completely. He buried his face in his hands and fought back tears. He was nearly 18, he wasn't going to cry.

He heard Thalia chuckle and he wanted to yell at her that it wasn't funny, but he didn't trust his voice. "You're such an idiot," she said, half a whisper.

There was a shuffling sound, and one hand was placed on his left cheek with the other on the back of his neck. "Look at me," Thalia commanded softly. He looked up, hoping, praying that his eyes weren't as red as he imagined them. "It's okay, Nico."

"No it's not! I've liked you since seventh grade, and you just want to be friends…"

"Who said I want to be friends?" Thalia interrupted.

Nico leaned back on the couch. Of course she didn't want to be his friend.

"I haven't wanted to be friends with you for three years," Thalia continue, sliding her left hand off his cheek but leaving her right on the back of his neck.

"Then why'd you stick around?" Nico asked bitterly.

She leaned forward. "I was hoping you'd stop being so dense." She chuckled softly. "You never did."

"What…" He was cut off by Thalia pressing her lips against his. He immediately shifted into a better position. One of his hands went to her thigh and the other to her waist. He felt her clutch his shirt in her fist.

They broke apart after what felt like hours but was really less than a minute and just stared at each other. "We need to work on this," Nico said after a while.

"What?"

He kissed her quickly. "Telling each other things."

Thalia laughed and kissed him again. "So?"

Nico's eyes furrowed. "So what?"

"Ask me," Thalia said, grinning. She slid her hand off his neck, down his chest, and to her own lap, but didn't let go of his shirt. At his confused expression she elaborated. "You said you wanted to ask me to prom."

He raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it a little early for that?"

"Asking someone to prom is like eating pizza. It's never too early."

Nico laughed. "Will you go to prom with me?"

"Will it be as terrible as tonight?"

He nodded. "Probably."

"Will we go for something better than pizza when it is?"

He nodded again. "Definitely."

Thalia leaned in and kissed him. When they broke apart she grinned. "Then I'd love to go with you."

**This is to make up for not having a new chapter for Along the Way. I'm about half done with it, so I will have it for next week. I might have to change my uploading schedule to every other week.**

**VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: A girl went missing from my school last Wednesday. I'm not saying that any of you might see her or anything, but the police have been talking to people in Texas, and we live in New Hampshire, so it's a possibility. Her name is Abigail Hernandez, she's about 5'4" and weighs 118 pounds, she's Hispanic with light olive skin and brown hair and eyes, and she was last seen wearing black leggings or yoga pants, a gray striped, multicolored sweater, and black leather boots. Her birthday was on Saturday, she's now fifteen. If you know anything call 1-800-CALL-FBI.**

**Review!**


End file.
